We can only be in awe of young women such as Nika Shakarami

Like Mahsa Amini, Nika Shakarami never made it home alive, writes Borzou Daragahi

A demonstration in solidarity with the Iranian people near the European parliament in Strasbourg (EPA)

Not much is publicly known about Nika Shakarami. A video posted on social media shows her dressed in goth-like black, bashfully singing a song for friends.

With family ties to Iran’s southwestern city of Khorramabad, she was just shy of 17 years old when she took part in a 20 September protest in Tehran sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, the young woman who was killed after being arrested by the morality police. Shakarami went missing. Her family looked for her for days, searching for clues at police stations and hospitals. They posted messages on social media.

But like Amini, Shakarami never made it home alive. Regime officials delivered her badly damaged body, with stitches and signs of physical assault, on 29 September. Authorities provided no explanation and not a single measure of accountability for the death of the young woman.